Microsoft Browser Losing Market Share
In 2003 Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) web browser accounted for around 95% of the market, it is now down to less than 60% according to latest figures.
Statistics show the IE has now only 59.9% of the market with Mozilla's Firefox gaining fast with a 24.5% share. Google's Chrome is in third place with a 6.7% share - although this seems very small by comparison it has risen from 1.7% in a year.
Experts say, one of the main reasons for IE losing market share is regarding concerns over security. We at ByITsizePro believe it also has to do with awareness of other browsers and users realising there are very good if not better alternatives. Another reason could have been that people using IE6 were told recently that they need to change due to some security issues and at this point they may have looked into alternatives rather than just upgrading to the latest IE. As Google has the market share of the search engines it is likely that their browser command a higher and higher market share over the next year, particularly with their marketing campaigns. Microsoft were also in court earlier this year and made to introduce browser choice to European users. Read more on this in our other article.
UK statistics show that IE still has a 70% share here with Firefox on 18%. This shows IE losing 6% of the market share in the UK since this time last year.
With IE9 due to be released in the next year things could get really competitive between the major browsers. IE9 promises to support HTML5 - the next-generation standard for coding web pages, which should reduce the need for plug-ins, such as Flash.
Google to Add On-screen Keyboard
Google have announced the latest update for their online search: a virtual, on-screen keyboard that allows text entry in foreign languages, saving users having to use a specialist physical keyboard.
The on-screen keyboard can be operated in two ways; either by hitting the corresponding keys on a physical keyboard, or by clicking the virtual keys one at a time with the mouse. As the Google blog post points out, this has the added bonus that you can still use Google even if you've poured coffee all over your computer's keyboard.
Britain's First Wi-Fi Dome
The small sleepy market town of Highworth in Swindon is to become the first town in Britain to have a Wi-Fi dome or mesh as it is also known. This revolutionary cloud computing will mean free Wi-Fi to all residents of the whole town anytime, anywhere.
Residents will also be offered for sale related applications and paid-for-access with higher speeds - it is unknown as yet what the free connection speed will be.
This has been made possible through a partnership between the council and a local businessman and will be funded by a mix of public and private money and it is hoped that a profit will be made when residents opt for faster speeds.
There will be 1,400 access points located across the town which are roughly the size of burglar alarms and weigh 2kg. They will be fitted to streetlamps and are similar to the routers used in homes but obviously much higher performance models. The 1,400 routers will be linked to each other meaning that if one breaks down the connection itself will not be broken.
By the summer, neighbouring town Swindon will be covered with the rest of the country to follow closely behind. If you would like to discuss or make a comment regarding this article then please do so on our facebook page.
Online versus Offline - My newspaper won't crash mid story on me.
One feature that reading your news online over printed newspapers, is the amount of storage capacity available. Printed news goes back hundreds of years to the late 1400's and many people still enjoy having a morning coffee or tea whilst reading their paper. In this digital age, most people go looking online for their news and as a result, online readership figures have increased rapidly. Both forms of news appeal to its audience in multiple ways. Will they both continue to coexist?. Papers like Metro have borrowed the internet's business model and make money solely through advertising. I think there is no doubt that growth in electronic media is the future, but there is still a future for print. The challenge for a business is in creativity and an understanding of the capabilities and limitations of both forms of media. Simply put, you would be unwise to offer on your website the exact same content as in your newspaper, why would people buy the newspaper?
I may argue though, that my newspaper goes with me with easier continuity...meaning I don't need an internet connection, but a strong wind may cause me as much irritation as a dodgy wireless connection. hmm...I begin to wonder if in times to come there will be a generation that has lost the skill of folding a newspaper..? What are your views on this topic? Online reading or Offline? - You can leave your comments on our facebook page.
Cont'd...our byITsize opinion on Microsoft Windows 7 - the more things change, the more they remain the same?
At first glance Windows 7 may seem to be nothing more than a polished up Vista Aero theme, but look deeper, it is in fact a full replacement operating system and not simply what I cynically thought would be "Vista done right". In fact, I can't help but like it. Touch technology has been available in Windows for years but Windows 7 extends it to every corner of my PC. The Start menu and taskbar now sport larger, fingertip-friendly icons and many of the familiar Windows 7 programs are also touch-ready. You can even finger paint in Paint! How cool is that! I notice it handles battery management more efficiently and features quite possibly the easiest user GUI interface Microsoft has offered us so far. For instance, if you want to work in two windows simultaneously– easy. Just drag one to the «left edge and the other to the right edge» of your screen, and each program will automatically resize itself to fit half the width of your monitor. Dragging a program away from the top or sides will return it to its original size. This is an entirely new feature in Windows 7 which should easily be adopted given that it copies and improves on the maximize/restore button that people have been resizing windows programs with since Windows 95. But then wait a second - .. I can't find an email icon along with some other programs that Microsoft left out of windows 7 (such as photo editor, messenger, movie maker).A small matter perhaps but similar to the transition from Windows XP to Windows Vista, certain capabilities and programs that are present in Windows Vista are no longer present in Windows 7 or have changed.
Is it unreasonable of me to expect each new Operating System to perform better than its previous one?. Is the newcomer just Vista with a facelift? Or has Microsoft learned from its mistakes and delivered to us a product that will restore its battered reputation? Perhaps you should forget about Vista and Windows 7 altogether and opt for the mature Windows XP instead? - which when first introduced back in 2001, was designed to run happily on 300MHz Pentium II CPUs with a mere 128MB of RAM. However, if you have high-end requirements, such as using a powerful PC to run heavy-duty applications, Windows 7 claims to be optimised for multicore CPUs, and includes a number of tweaks to make the best of the latest hardware.
So which is best - Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7? Windows XP, Windows Vista or the new contender, Windows 7. We are aware that speed isn't everything though so we'll also explore the new features that each Operating System has introduced. To make life easy for you, Kate and I will share our findings and publish them in eight byITsize categories, with an overall verdict (our opinion) discussed in our facebook chat sessions. The first category was the BOOT TIME TEST..Vista took the longest time to get started, XP came in second place and Windows 7 was the fastest - no real surprises so far. Keep checking up for more.
Famous York street wins Google Street View award
Famous York street 'The Shambles' has today won Google Street Views award for being the most picturesque street in Britain.
'The Shambles' is one of Yorks most famous streets and attracts thousands of visitors each year including as part of the Yorkshire Trail. The buildings of the Shambles date back to the late 14th and 15th century (around 1350-1475) with the street itself dating back even further - there is mention of it in William the Conquerors Doomsday Book from 1086.
This stunning little cobbled street was originally full of houses and butchers shops many of which had their own slaughter houses to the rear. The meat would have hung outside and been laid out on the window sills for sale. Butchers hooks can still be seen attached to the shop fronts. At this time there was no modern day sanitation and raised pavements on either side formed chanels for the butchers to to wash away their waste blood and offal twice a week.
Today the Shambles is better known for its array of souvenir shops, tourist attractions, cafes and restaurants and is often called Europes best preserved medieval street. As it is in Britains most haunted City the Shambles is included in many of the ghost walks and historic tours of the city, no trip to York would be complete without paying this beautiful historic street a visit.
Continued...Optimisation - What is it all about?
Ever wondered what search engines (Google, Bing, Ask, Yahoo etc) find when they visit your site? Do they find lots of related text and links to other parts of your site? If they do that's great. If not then there is some work do be done and quick! If the search engines can't find you then how will potential clients? If you, like most depend on your website to bring in some or most of your business and it can't be found then something needs to be done now - every day of your website not working to its full potential is losing you money.
Search Engine Optimisation is something that should be done when your site is designed and built, it can be done later but the sooner it's done the better. If you already have a site then Search Engine Optimisation will improve the amount of traffic to your site and make it appear higher up in the search engine rankings - therefore making it visible to the people you want to see it. A website can look like the best site in the world but this is not what counts when it comes to search engines finding your site. Website optimisation is one of the most important parts of designing and building a website - without optimisation your site will not be found by search engines and in turn potential customers. There are basically two types of visitor to your site - the human kind and the search engine kind. Your site needs to be attractive to both and these are two completely different things and both of equal importance. This is where the designer has to work on two levels - there are certain things that can make a site look very attractive to the human visitor but if done incorrectly can prevent the search engines finding content and therefore will make for a low ranking website.
It could even be that you put your website into a search and the result comes back "did not match any results" - it is possible for search engines to be unaware of a site. This can be fixed quickly and easily but is extremely important if you want your site to work for you.
Continued...Microsoft To Offer Browser Choices Across Europe
From today Microsoft is asking European Users if they would like to use a different browser other than Internet Explorer (IE).This change has come as part of a deal that Microsoft have made with the European Commission after being accused of abusing its market position.
From 1st March 2010 a pop up will appear prompting users to choose and install one of 12 different browsers or to stay with IE. This software will come via the Windows Update software that Microsoft use to distribute their security patches.
The update has been prepared for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7, even so, not all users of these will see the pop up. It will not appear for those who are already running a different default browser such as Google Chrome, Mozilla FireFox or Safari. Users that have IE as their default browser and who have taken the option of allowing Windows to automatically install updates are guaranteed to see the pop up.
Anyone who has the automatic install of updates turned off will today be prompted today to install and run this software. These users may also go to the Windows Update site, run a "Check For Updates" and get it. When the software runs it will now present users with a window saying "An important choice to make: your browser". It also asks users to ensure they are connected to the internet. On clicking "Ok" they will then see the choice of the 12 browsers available with information on each to help users decide which suits their requirements. There is also an "opt out" option will will allow users to make a decision at a later date and will then place a shortcut icon on the users desktop giving users this browser choice at another time. Users wanting to stick with IE will be prompted to upgrade to the latest IE version which is currently IE8.
Currently the browser market share is:
Microsoft Internet Explorer 62.12%
Mozilla Firefox 24.43%
Google Chrome 5.22%
Safari 4.53%
Opera 2.38
Mini Opera 0.59%
Other 0.68M
It will be interesting to see what if any effect this change will have on the browser market share.
The pop up is already confusing many users who have been thinking they have a virus or that their computer has been taken over.
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